Fire safety is a huge concern in workplaces throughout Australia, especially in the hotter, drier parts of the country. While fire protection equipment like fire extinguishers and sprinkler systems can help protect your workplace, effective fire safety is about more than just installing the right protective gear.

Ultimately, you can have the best fire safety equipment in the world, but if no one knows how to use it, it will be pretty ineffective. It is therefore extremely important to make sure that you understand who is responsible for fire safety in your workplace, and to make sure that they understand what their responsibilities are.

So, Who Is Responsible?

Under Australian occupational health and safety laws, the management of any business or company has the responsibility to make sure that all health and safety risks – such as fire – are minimised. If a fire does occur, there must be someone on site who knows where fire safety equipment is kept, how it is operated and what sort of fire safety gear is appropriate for different types of fires.

However, it is also the responsibility of employees to cooperate with a workplace’s fire management policies and procedures. In a lot of workplaces, these will include some sort of safety induction at the start of a job or when you enter a new workplace. This will often include an identification of where fire safety equipment is kept, and a brief explanation of how it is used. It is your responsibility, as an employee, to make sure that you take note of any safety information provided by your employer.